Footwear rack

ABSTRACT

A rack designed to vertically store footwears over one another and to collect water, sand, mud and/or any other debris falling therefrom while avoiding spillage of footwear stored on lower levels.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(a) Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a footwear rack. More particularly, thepresent invention is concerned with a device for cleanly and neatlystoring boots or overshoes especially during winter or periods of badweather, when water, mud salt and all kind of impurities accumulate onthe footwear and may dirty the shoe storage area.

(b) Description of Prior Art

Winter and bad weather conditions generally cause footwear to be wet orsoiled by mud, salt and the like, which leads to spillage on floorsespecially in public buildings, and even at home.

To avoid extensive cleaning, public and private buildings often comprisean area where shoes, shoes covers or boots can be left by their users.However, footwear storage areas have generally to be wide since verticalstorage of boots, shoes, cover shoes or the like would normally causesspillage on footwears stored on lower levels.

To alleviate this problem, the prior art discloses footwear racksdesigned to store shoes or boot over one other. For example, racks forstoring footwear are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,661,098 to Side, U.S.Pat. No. 1,810,308 to Wandeler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,573 to Collins andCollins, U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,993 to Blanc and Jorcin, U.S. Pat. No.3,587,864 to Delisle, U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,242 to Miklya and U.S. Pat.No. 4,997,093. Although solutions have been proposed to alleviatespillage on floors with soiled footwear, none of the solutions proposedin the prior art provides a means for vertically storing shoes or boot,while preventing footwears stored at upper levels to soiled those storedat lower levels, and being easily adaptable to variable shoe dimensionsand avoiding any damage to footwears.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aim of the present invention is to provide a footwear rack designedto collect in a container any liquid, mud, sand and/or impurities thatmay drip away from a plurality of footwears disposed in the rack.

According to a general aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a footwear rack comprising a container and grid means on top ofthe container, the grid means to support at least one footwear and allowmatter dripping out therefrom to accumulate the said container. The rackfurther comprises a vertical hanger connected to the container, at leastone grid shaped footwear shelf on the vertical hanger and gutter meansfor each shelf, the gutter means being arranged to receive drippingmatter that escapes from at least one additional footwear placed on theshelf and transfer same to the container without contacting any footweardisposed below.

More particularly, the invention relates to a footwear rack designed tocollect in a container, any liquid, mud, sand and/or impurities that maydrip away from a plurality of footwears disposed in said rack, saidfootwear rack comprising:

-   -   a container and grid means on top of said container, said grid        means being designed to support at least one footwear and allow        matter dripping out therefrom to accumulate in said container,    -   a hanger connected to said container,    -   at least one grid shaped footwear shelf on said hanger, and    -   gutter means for each said shelf, said gutter means arranged to        receive dripping matter that escapes from at least one        additional footwear and transfer same to said container without        contacting any footwear disposed below.

Advantageously, said hanger may have various orientations as far as itpermits to hang shelf(s) thereon. Preferably, said hanger may be asubstantially vertical hanger, and more preferably said hanger may be asubstantially vertical rectangular box having an inner space thereindefined by a front face and a rear face.

Advantageously, said container may have any appropriate geometric shape.Preferably, said container may be rectangular.

Advantageously, said mounting means may consist of any appropriate meansto mount a shelf on a support (i.e. hanger). Preferably, said mountingmeans may comprise:

-   -   in said front face of said box shaped hanger, at least one pair        of hook engaging holes, said holes being formed in said front        face;    -   in said at least one shelf, at an inner end thereof, downwardly        extending hooks, said hook being removably engageable in said        hook engaging holes; and    -   in said gutter means, a stopper for engagement against said        front face.

Alternatively, said mounting means may comprise:

-   -   in said front face of said box shaped hanger, at least one pair        of hook engaging holes, said holes being formed in said front        face;    -   in said at least one shelf, at an inner end thereof, downwardly        extending hooks, said hook being removably engageable in said        hook engaging holes; and    -   in said gutter means, a stopper for engagement against said        front face.

Advantageously, said front face of said box shaped hanger may be alsoformed with a substantially horizontal slot that is disposed below eachsaid at least one pair of hook engaging holes, said gutter meanscomprising a downwardly inclined flat member for each said at least oneshelf and disposed below same, said flat member having an upper endconnected to an outer end of said shelf and a lower end extendingthrough said slot into said inner space.

Advantageously, said means allowing communication between said innerspace and said container may be of any appropriate kind.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, showing by wayof illustration, preferred embodiments thereof, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a footwear rack according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of a shelving device according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 3 is a top perspective view of the shelving device shown in FIG. 2;and in FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a side view of the footwear rack according to line IV-IV ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a top perspective view of a variation of the shelving deviceshown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a side view of the footwear rack according to line IV-IV inFIG. 2 with a shelf of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a top perspective view of another variation of the shelvingdevice shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 8 is a side view of the footwear rack according to line IV-IV inFIG. 2 with a shelf of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a front view of the shelving device of FIG. 2.

FIG. 10 is a partial view of an alternative means for mounting a shelfof FIG. 2 without the stopper 48.

It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like featuresare identified by like reference numerals.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to the drawings, more particularly FIGS. 1 to 3, a footwearrack 1 designed to collect liquid mud, sand, dust or any impurity foundon shoes, boots, ski boots or any footwear will be described. Rack 1generally comprises a hollow rear wall 3, a base 5, at least oneshelving device 7 and a container 9.

Hollow rear wall 3 has the general shape of a rectangular box verticallypositioned and comprising a front face 11, a rear face 13 and a top face15 (FIG. 1). Base 5 generally defines a rectangular box horizontallypositioned and adopted for resting on the floor or any other horizontalsurface. Base 5 comprises a bottom face 17 and a top face 19 and isconnected by its rear extremity 21 to the lower extremity 23 of rearface 13 of wall 3, in a manner that the base 5 and wall 3 assemblydefines a L-shaped member. Wall 3 and base 5 are connected by L-shapedside panels 25 a, 25 b that constitute simultaneously the side faces ofthe wall and base assembly. Front face 11 and rear face 13 of wall 3extend from top face 15 until reaching top face 19 and bottom face 17,respectively, so that the wall and base assembly create a L-shapedhollow box. Front face 11 of rear wall 3 comprises hook-anchoring holes41 a, 41 b and longitudinal slot 43 horizontally disposed underhook-anchoring holes 41 a, 41 b, the longitudinal slot 43 and holes 41a,41 b being designed to accommodate shelving means 7. As shown anynumber if hook-anchoring holes and slots may be provided depending onthe intent of the designer.

Shelving device 7 comprises a shelf 29 and a gutter 31, angularlyadjoined by their respective front edges 33 and 35 (FIGS. 2 and 3).Shelving device 7 may optionally comprise end panels 51 or 53 (shown inFIGS. 5 and 7), to help avoiding water and falling debris from escapingat the side extremities of gutter 31, as it will be described in detailshereinafter. Rear edge 37 of shelf 29 comprises downwardly extendinganchoring hooks 39 a,39 b designed to be inserted into anchoring holes41 a, 41 b and maintain shelf 29 in a generally horizontal positionwhile rear edge 45 of gutter 31 is inserted into longitudinal slot 43(FIG. 4) and at least one stopper 48 (see FIGS. 2 to 4 and 9) engagesthe front face 11 as shown. A skilled artisan will understand thatmultiple shelving device 7 may be mounted on a same footwear rack 1.Shelf 29 accommodates shoes, boots or other footwear 46 and preferablyconsists of a grid material, such as metal grid, plastic grid,fiberglass grid or any perforated panel allowing the passage of water ordebris falling from footwear onto gutter 31 (FIG. 3). The same gridmaterial may also be used to fabricate top face 19 of base 5 to provideadditional storage space on footwear rack 1 (FIG. 1).

Optionally, the stopper 48 may be replaced by end panels 51 or 53.Alternatively, a clip 55 may provided with fixing means allowing to fixit (by any appropriate means including for example a layer of glue 56and/or fastener(s) such as for example screw(s) 57) inside hollow nearwall 3 to removably receive anchoring hooks 39 a, 39 b. In that case,stopper 48 may be present or not, depending on the charge to be appliedon the shelf. Cavity 61 may be defined by a portion of wall 11 and clip55. An anchoring hook 39 a or 39 b can removably engages the cavity 61or can be removed therefrom according to arrow appearing in FIG. 10.Preferably, the clip may make an integral part of the wall 11 and thenno fixing means are required.

Container 9 has preferably the shape of a drawer that is slidablymounted in base 5 through opening 27. Container 9 preferably extendsfrom opening 27 to rear face 13 of rear wall 3, to ensure that matterfalling within cavity 47 of rear wall 3 will end into container 9, as itwill be described in more details hereinafter. A person skilled in theart will however understand that any container, removable or not, thatmay serve the purpose of the present invention can be used.

In use (see FIG. 4), footwear 46 are stored on shelf 29. Water sand orthe like fall from footwear onto gutter 31 through grid 29 or panel'sperforations provided in the defined by top face 19, where gravitycauses them to naturally fall along angled gutter 31, throughlongitudinal slot 43, into cavity 47 of rear wall 3 and to finally endinto container 9. Debris falling from shoes or boots stored onperforated or grid face 19 of base 5 fall directly into container 9. Toavoid water, sand, mud or the like to escape from the sides of gutter31, panels or flanges may be provided on both side of gutter 31.Alternatively, gutter 31 can be angled so that fluids and solidparticles migrate to the center of gutter 31 while falling thereon.

While the invention has been described with particular reference to theillustrated embodiment, it will be understood that numerousmodifications thereto will appear to those skilled in the art.Accordingly, the above description and accompanying drawings should betaken as illustrative of the invention and not in a limiting sense.

1. A footwear rack designed to collect in a container, any liquid, mud,sand and/or impurities that may drip away from a plurality of footwearsdisposed in said rack, said footwear rack comprising: a container andgrid means on top of said container, said grid means being designed tosupport at least one footwear and allow matter dripping out therefrom toaccumulate in said container, a hanger connected to said container, atleast one grid shaped footwear shelf on said hanger, and gutter meansfor each said shelf, said gutter means arranged to receive drippingmatter that escapes from at least one additional footwear and transfersame to said container without contacting any footwear disposed below.2. A footwear rack according to claim 1, wherein said hanger is asubstantially vertical hanger.
 3. Footwear rack according to claim 2,wherein said container is rectangular.
 4. Footwear rack according toclaim 3, wherein said hanger is in the form of a substantially verticalrectangular box having an inner space therein defined by a front faceand a rear face.
 5. Footwear rack according to claim 4, wherein saidmounting means comprises: in said front face of said box shaped hanger,at least one pair of hook engaging holes, said holes being formed insaid front face; in said at least one shelf, at an inner end thereof,downwardly extending hooks, said hook being removably engageable in saidhook engaging holes; and in said gutter means, a stopper for engagementagainst said front face.
 6. Footwear rack according to claim 4, whereinsaid mounting means comprises: in said front face of said box shapedhanger, at least one pair of hook engaging holes, said holes beingformed in said front face; in said at least one shelf, at an inner endthereof, downwardly extending hooks, said hook being removablyengageable in said hook engaging holes; and receiving clip providedinside the box shaped hanger for receiving the downwardly extendingportion of at least one hook and cooperating with this latter to keepthe shelf substantially horizontal.
 7. Footwear according to claim 5,wherein said front face of said box shaped hanger is also formed with asubstantially horizontal slot that is disposed below each said at leastone pair of hook engaging holes, said gutter means comprising adownwardly inclined flat member for each said at least one shelf anddisposed below same, said flat member having an upper end connected toan outer end of said shelf and a lower end extending through said slotinto said inner space.
 8. Footwear according to claim 6, wherein saidfront face of said box shaped hanger is also formed with a substantiallyhorizontal slot that is disposed below each said at least one pair ofhook engaging holes, said gutter means comprising a downwardly inclinedflat member for each said at least one shelf and disposed below same,said flat member having an upper end connected to an outer end of saidshelf and a lower end extending through said slot into said inner space.9. Footwear rack according to claim 6, which comprises means allowingcommunication between said inner space and said container.